AK and low pocket pairs

gus201

gus201

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AK is it a made hand ?
Is it a drawing hand ?
Why is it I see the ones pushing the chips the hardest are the ones with Low pocket pairs and unmade hands . The unmade hands are usually reraising all in against made hands . The low pocket pairs usually are doing the same thing as well but not all ways , still a good percent of them though .
Is this the new way to play these hands and go out of tourneys because of not bad play but wrong way of playing them hands ?
Just curious to what I have been watching at the tables the last year or so .
Whats your opinion ?
 
youregoodmate

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I hate it when people say AK is a drawing hand.

It has tremendous equity against a strong opponent range.
 
H

hffjd2000

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Though its a flip situation, I love pocket pairs more than AK.
 
horizon12

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If you sayd about preflop push , AK and low pairs have approximately the same equity vs most range hands... Both group hands need push always in preflop, because they difficult play in postflop game...
 
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joe777

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The only disturbing thing about small pocket pair

showdown with AK pre is when you lose the small

pair against it.Because one in three the big slick often

hit it target.
 
suby_rafael

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AK is not that strong a hand and people usually end up overplaying it a lot of times especially with the 3bets, 4bets and so on.

AK is definitely not a made hand so when having deep stacks one should play it relatively conservatively more so if in a tournament.
 
deluns28

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do not commit all your chips pre-flop with AK. You can only do this if you or your villain is short stacked. Consider folding your AK 50% of the time when you missed the flop.
 
youregoodmate

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AK is not that strong a hand and people usually end up overplaying it a lot of times especially with the 3bets, 4bets and so on.

AK is definitely not a made hand so when having deep stacks one should play it relatively conservatively more so if in a tournament.

do not commit all your chips pre-flop with AK. You can only do this if you or your villain is short stacked. Consider folding your AK 50% of the time when you missed the flop.

This is just flawed thinking.

AK is better to get it in with than TT/JJ and certainly lower pocket pairs.

Why is this?

It's because although AK is technically just behind pocket pairs, it is only crushed by AA and still has decent equity against KK. We also have blockers to those two hands to reduce their frequency against us.

Take a hand like JJ. We are flipping against AQ/AK and are crushed by most other hands that get it in pre-flop. We have no blockers to higher pairs of course and we are in very bad shape when we face them.

Getting AK in pre-flop is standard in most situations (not all). We have great equity against an all-in range of hands. That is why AK is one of the best hands in hold-em.
 
suby_rafael

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@youregoodmate - no you should consider stack size first and then your hand. If you have 25bb or less then AK is worth the gamble for all your money. Not more than that.
 
youregoodmate

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@youregoodmate - no you should consider stack size first and then your hand. If you have 25bb or less then AK is worth the gamble for all your money. Not more than that.

If you truly believe that then I would be surprised if you are a winning player.

Please feel free to post a thread about that in the cash section of the forum and see how many good players rip it apart.

Please note: I don't stack off 100bb with AK every time, its very situational.
 
TheKAAHK

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Ace-King really is a hand that should be played aggressively before the flop and then cautiously after the flop.

Does anyone else read this in Mike Sexton's voice?
 
bracadelija

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What I find interesting is your discussion. I find that you are all right, that's because AK pre-flop is 50% .my some style such aggressive Ak 50% 50% slow.
 
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jj20002

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in a HU situation AK is better than low pocket pairs and also easily to play after flop, actually against more than one villain

low pairs are only useful is the flop brings the set otherwise against more than one villain is a fold for sure, and against one villain still is a risk because easily the low pair could be dominated or pre or postflop

and the other reason AK is better than low pairs is that AK is almost a coin flip against any pair including queens, and more than 70% over any Ax

in the other side low pairs are behind any superior pair 80/22 and is a coin flip against any two higher cards

for that reason you can risk in allin preflop situation lets say 20 BB against one player holding AK but if your hole cards are a low pocket pair you better think twice before you pull the trigger
 
VizziVizo

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AK usually do not go into the flop and any pocket pair have ekviti against them, but only limpers and Fieschi go to the bank with small pocket pairs on your raise and such tournaments with buy in otherwise pretty hard to meet
 
gus201

gus201

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AK is not that strong a hand and people usually end up overplaying it a lot of times especially with the 3bets, 4bets and so on.

AK is definitely not a made hand so when having deep stacks one should play it relatively conservatively more so if in a tournament.



I agree with that . I think some players are stuck playing AK the same way when they have 10 to 15 going at one time and dont realise how many players over play and over value AK preflop .
2 pair or better is the average winning hand in poker. I see most players putting their chip stacks at risk all day long on top . Most dont even recognize the players playing for staights and flushes . They only slow down and maybe fold when the board goes 4 to straight or 4 to flush other wise they will pay you off :)

Thank you all for your opinions

Remember its up to you and how you see fit to play the hand :)

Good Skill at the Tables
 
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AK is a drawing hand pre-flop...since at that moment you only have a high card
with AK i prefer to just raise and not go all-in since if you dont hit any thing you only got A high

poket pairs even if they are low they are still good hands to play with
with something like pocket 2 i prefer to try and hit a set before betting so i will just call smal bets for the most of the time

but if your on a very agressive spot like with high blinds and low stacks i think its okay to just go all-in since like you said AK might call and be behind most of the time and if your lucky there might be more than 1 player with A high calling and you get a very big advantage
 
deluns28

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This is just flawed thinking.

AK is better to get it in with than TT/JJ and certainly lower pocket pairs.

Why is this?

It's because although AK is technically just behind pocket pairs, it is only crushed by AA and still has decent equity against KK. We also have blockers to those two hands to reduce their frequency against us.

Take a hand like JJ. We are flipping against AQ/AK and are crushed by most other hands that get it in pre-flop. We have no blockers to higher pairs of course and we are in very bad shape when we face them.

Getting AK in pre-flop is standard in most situations (not all). We have great equity against an all-in range of hands. That is why AK is one of the best hands in hold-em.

I think the OP is asking how to play AK in tournanent. Off-course, this is different from cash games. In tournament, you should avoid to commit all your chips preflop including AK. this was my advice.
 
deluns28

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If you truly believe that then I would be surprised if you are a winning player.

Please feel free to post a thread about that in the cash section of the forum and see how many good players rip it apart.

Please note: I don't stack off 100bb with AK every time, its very situational.


we should not measure if the poster is a winning player or not here. My opinion is that all regular players can play AK similarly it's just the the basis/knowledge/logic behind it is different. You may be super tight or super lag. There is no tailored strategy in poker, every situation is different.
 
gus201

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we should not measure if the poster is a winning player or not here. My opinion is that all regular players can play AK similarly it's just the the basis/knowledge/logic behind it is different. You may be super tight or super lag. There is no tailored strategy in poker, every situation is different.


I agree , well stated .
 
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freestocks

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I am usually aggressive with ace king.
 
youregoodmate

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I think the OP is asking how to play AK in tournanent. Off-course, this is different from cash games. In tournament, you should avoid to commit all your chips preflop including AK. this was my advice.

Tournaments are not about 'surviving'. They are about final tabling and most importantly the top 3.

Take a successful tourney pro for example, their ITM% is rarely higher than 20% and can be as low as 10% because finishing ITM is not as important as final tabling.

That means taking +EV spots whenever possible, regardless of 'tournament life'. That means when < 100bb we should be getting AK in pre a good portion of the time.
 
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I treat AK like a made hand pre... if i end up seeing a flop for just a raise, ill find a fold to alot of aggression on the flop... like over people have said its very situationally and chipstack based... Recently ive been just folding alot of my small pairs pre in the latter stages of tournies... flop to set ratio just isnt worthwile later on. well for me anyway lol
 
deluns28

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Tournaments are not about 'surviving'. They are about final tabling and most importantly the top 3.

Take a successful tourney pro for example, their ITM% is rarely higher than 20% and can be as low as 10% because finishing ITM is not as important as final tabling.

That means taking +EV spots whenever possible, regardless of 'tournament life'. That means when < 100bb we should be getting AK in pre a good portion of the time.


Thanks you for giving extra details that support your previous posts. I could not agree more. :)
 
tothbopo

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@youregoodmate - no you should consider stack size first and then your hand. If you have 25bb or less then AK is worth the gamble for all your money. Not more than that.

Two times in to days I have been kicked out of a Premier League game calling all-in pre-flop with QQ losing to AK unsuited.

In my believe The QQ should be a better starting hand then AK, but now I don't know.
 
youregoodmate

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Two times in to days I have been kicked out of a Premier League game calling all-in pre-flop with QQ losing to AK unsuited.

In my believe The QQ should be a better starting hand then AK, but now I don't know.

QQ is slightly ahead of AK in terms of equity, so yes if I knew the hands then of course I would pick QQ.
 
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